2020-10-16 13:04 update: 2020-10-23, 18:25
Old town in Warsaw. Phot. PAP/Kalbar
International experts will mark the 40th anniversary of adding the Historic Centre of Warsaw to the UNESCO's World Heritage List during an online seminar to be held on October 21.
The virtual conference titled "The invincible city. Society in cultural heritage recovery," will also discuss the enormous effort undertaken 75 years ago to rebuild the WWII-destroyed Polish capital.
The debate will take the form of two thematic panels, both held in English.
The first panel, "Ruins, bricks and dust. International experience of the recovery of historic cities" will focus on the experience gained over the period of the past 75 years since the reconstruction of war-ravaged cities and on the changing relationship between the historic preservation officer and society in the reconstruction process.
During the discussion, experts will attempt to answer questions about the messages and lessons learned by the Polish nation and Warsaw itself from the symbolic rebirth of society, as a result of its determination to restore the destroyed material heritage that bears testimony to its cultural identity.
The second panel, "Ruins towards future. How to plan a recovery process? Solidarity with Beirut", in a gesture of solidarity with the capital of Lebanon, will concern contemporary problems, challenges and possibilities of protecting heritage against destruction.
Universal guidelines on the course of action to be taken when heritage sites are destroyed will be presented, as well as visions of the future and a new approach to the heritage restoration process with the support of international expert groups.
"The debate may become an inspiration and a source of knowledge stemming from historical experience of cities like Warsaw," the organisers said.
Among the webinar speakers are Polish Deputy Culture Minister Magdalena Gawin, General Conservator of Monuments and President of the Polish National Committee of ICOMOS (an international NGO dedicated to the conservation of the world's monuments and sites) Jadwiga Łukaszewicz. The conference will also be addressed by Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre Mechtild Rössler, Director of Culture and Emergencies UNESCO Lazare Eloundou Assomo, Director of Partnership and Communication, International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), Joseph King and ICOMOS's Director General Marie-Laure Lavenir, among many other international experts.
The event is addressed to Polish and foreign architects, town planners, historians, archaeologists, conservators and local government officials.
Participation in the webinar is free of charge. Please register for the event at: https://app.evenea.pl/event/theinvinciblecity/.
Link to the webinar will be sent to registered e-mail addresses. The discussion with the speakers will be possible in the form of an online chat.
A detailed programme of the webinar “The invincible city. Society in cultural heritage recovery” and biographies of the speakers are available at:
https://nid.pl/pl/Informacje_ogolne/Aktualnosci/news.php?ID=4376
A Facebook event is available at: https://fb.me/e/1zDmmIVns
For more information please contact Adamina Modrzejewska from the National Institute of Cultural Heritage (amodrzejewska@nid.pl). (PAP)
